40-42 Ballypollard Road, Magheramorne, Larne, Co Antrim, BT40 3JA

Designed in 1876 by the prominent Irish architect Samuel P. Close, this building was originally conceived as a small single-storey minister's residence serving the nearby mission house and school, now Magheramorne Presbyterian Church. It was enlarged shortly afterwards with a two-storey extension to serve as an agent's house for the Magheramorne estate. The building is of local interest both for its association with the adjacent church and with the important demesne that adjoins it. It has since been divided into two dwellings.

The house is a multi-gabled, single- and two-storey building constructed in basalt rubble with yellow brick dressings and steeply pitched roofs. All woodwork is painted white. The roofs are covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, oversailing at each end on shaped timber brackets with tongued-and-grooved soffits; black ridge tiles are used throughout, with a shaped finial at each extremity. Eaves overhang on projecting rafters with shaped ends. Cast iron gutters and downpipes are used throughout much of the building.

The main entrance front faces south-east. This elevation is two storeys, three bays, and symmetrical, with a central single-storey gabled porch projecting forward. The walls are of basalt rubble with later reticulated pointing and squared quoin edges. A projecting basalt plinth runs across the base, with a chamfered yellow brick weathering, except at the extremities where sandstone weatherings are used. Two chimneys are symmetrically placed on the ridge, constructed of yellow brick with a cornice of three courses of yellow brick and one modern earthenware pot each; the right-hand chimney also carries a television aerial.

The projecting porch is gabled, with walling and plinth matching the main elevation. Its barge boards are chamfered with shaped, notched ends containing small quatrefoil perforations, and are carried on a pair of shaped and notched brackets. A modern ironwork weathervane sits at the finial apex. The gable of the porch contains one rectangular timber sliding sash window, vertically hung, two over two, with horns, a sandstone cill, stop-chamfered yellow brick dressings to the sides, a stop-chamfered sandstone head, and a Gothic relieving arch in basalt above. Cast iron downpipes run to the extremities of the porch gable.

The left face of the porch contains the main entrance: a rectangular ledged timber door with a bronze octagonal handle and a curvilinear brass letterbox. The door has a sandstone head, yellow brick jambs keyed into the return stonework at the right-hand extremity, and a wide sandstone step. A circular metal bell-push surround is set on a wooden block into the brickwork of the left-hand door jamb, and a later metal lamp bracket is mounted on the wall to the right of the door. The right face of the porch has a rectangular timber sliding sash window, vertically hung, one over one, with horns and a cill; dressings to the sides and head match those of the porch gable window but without a relieving arch over.

To each side of the porch, at ground floor level, are sashed windows with Gothic relieving arches matching those on the porch gable. Above, at first floor, two similar windows rise into gabled dormers containing relieving arches; the dormer gables are slated as the main roof, with timber barge boards, finials, and brackets matching the entrance porch.

The south-west elevation consists of a large two-storey gable of the main house to the right and a lower return set back to the left, from which a pair of single-storey gables project forward, terminating at the left-hand extremity in a low hipped-roof extension. The main two-storey gable has large coupled windows symmetrically placed at ground floor level, with Gothic relieving arches, matching those on the entrance front, and similar windows at first floor. In the apex of the gable is a recessed circular stone panel set in a yellow brick surround. The oversailing gabled roof has woodwork matching the entrance porch, though not original — it has been replaced to the original design.

The wall returns to form the north-west face of the two-storey block, which has one first-floor window: a rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, two over two, with horns, cill, and dressings matching the entrance front, but with an unchamfered sandstone head. A cast iron gutter discharges onto the roof below with no downpipe. A PVC soil pipe is located near the front corner of the block, with a PVC boiler flue pipe beyond, emerging from a small ground-floor window that has been blocked up.

To the left of the main two-storey gable is a single-storey lean-to bay with a rectangular sashed window, two over two, with chamfered surrounds. Its shallow pitched roof is slated as the main roof, with the steeper pitched roof of the return beyond. The return has one chimney on the ridge in yellow brick with a yellow earthenware pot. A cast iron gutter to the lean-to rests on shaped projecting rafter ends; a cast iron downpipe is mounted on the side wall of the twin-gabled projection to the left. That side wall contains a narrow rectangular timber window, one over one, with unchamfered surrounds in yellow brick and sandstone.

The twin-gabled projection has roofs slated as the main roof, with matching barge boards, brackets, and finials. The left gable is taller due to unequal bay widths. Some rot is present to the ends of the barge boards at the central valley, and some repair work in spliced sections is apparent to barge boards and certain brackets. The lower gable has a single rectangular sashed window, one over one, with unchamfered surrounds but with a Gothic relieving arch over; its lower pane is in translucent glass. The higher gable has a pair of similar coupled windows in clear glass, with sandstone heads butting one another and surmounted by a large Gothic relieving arch containing a sandstone shield with the inscribed date 'AD 1876'. Stepped back slightly to the left of the twin-gabled projection is a low single-storey extension with a hipped roof, PVC gutter and downpipe, a small sashed window of one over one with unchamfered surrounds, and walling matching the rest of the building but without a plinth.

The north-west elevation comprises a single-storey wall of outbuildings enclosing a small yard, with blank walls to each side of a central doorway. The doorway contains a rectangular ledged pine door, stained and varnished, set in a segmental-arched yellow brick surround with a modern concrete step. The outbuilding to the right of the door has a hipped roof slated as the main building, on shaped projecting brackets that are not structural, with a PVC gutter returning from the west elevation. The outbuilding to the left has a low-pitched monopitch roof of asbestos slates, oversailing on plain timber brackets with a tongued-and-grooved soffit, and a timber barge board that is not original, with a shaped lower end. The yard wall above the doorway has reset rough stone copings.

The yard has been later covered over with a modern clear corrugated perspex roof on a light timber structure. The yard floor is covered in modern concrete pavoirs, and the interior yard walls are constructed of modern red brick with some stonework, the stonework having modern reticulated pointing. Behind the yard and outbuildings is a taller slated roof with one yellow brick chimney with a cowl pot. To the left-hand side, an attic dormer is constructed in timber, with a fixed light and a side-hung casement to the front face, glazed cheeks of two fixed lights each side, and a low-pitched lead roof. Behind the hipped and gabled block, the elevation of the main two-storey block is visible; its roof is slated as the entrance front and contains a large rectangular three-light flush rooflight which appears to be original.

The north-east elevation presents the tall two-storey gable of the main block to the left and the lower hipped return set well back to the right, terminating in a low flat-topped single-storey outbuilding. The main two-storey gable has a pair of coupled sashed windows surmounted by a pair of Gothic relieving arches, matching those on the south-west gable; spalling is evident to the sandstone heads. At ground floor, a canted bay projects forward, constructed of yellow brick above a continuous sandstone cill, with a moulded brick cornice and blocking course surmounted by an unpainted wooden fascia and PVC gutter, and a PVC downpipe. Below the cill the walling reverts to basalt with the projecting plinth and brick weathering found elsewhere. The bay contains three timber sashed windows — one in each face — with stop-chamfered brick surrounds and stop-chamfered sandstone heads; the front face window is two over two, while those to each angled face are one over one.

The wall then returns to the right to form the north-west face of the main block: a blank basalt wall with projecting plinth as elsewhere, cast iron gutter on projecting shaped rafter ends, and a cast iron downpipe with a double-curved polygonal hopper at an intermediate stage to receive discharge from the lower return. The lower return is slated as the main building and has one yellow brick chimney with a cowl pot. A rectangular attic dormer is constructed in timber, with paired side-hung casements to the front above tongued-and-grooved sheeting, glazed cheeks of three fixed panes, and a shallow-pitched lead roof. The walling has a projecting plinth as elsewhere, and the hipped roof has a pair of shaped brackets fixed laterally to the right-hand end of the return — not structural — with a cast iron gutter on shaped projecting brackets. Three windows are set in the return, all rectangular sashed, one over one, with unchamfered surrounds. The wall of the outbuilding extending to the right-hand extremity has no plinth, with a flat profile to the roof above and a timber fascia oversailing on projecting rafter ends. The extension contains one small rectangular timber fixed light of two panes with unchamfered surrounds.

The building stands in a very rural location on an elevated site overlooking Larne Lough to the north. It is set well back from the main road but visible from it, within its own grounds containing mature trees and shrubs, with lawns to three sides. The contemporary Magheramorne Presbyterian Church stands immediately to the south-east. Boundaries are formed by hedges and fences. The main entrance gateway to the west comprises a pair of chamfered concrete posts with shaped tops, flanked each side by slatted wooden screens, and hung with a timber gate of rectilinear design in poor condition; this gateway is of no special merit. Between the gateway and the house stands a detached outbuilding of rectangular plan, built of basalt rubble with a brick chimney; this too is of no special merit.